Avidbots and Sodexo are teaming up to deploy Neo, an autonomous floor scrubbing robot, to support the cleaning staff at Ontario-based London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neo will clean the floors of the hospital, allowing cleaning staff to focus on high-touch items such as doorknobs, buttons, and other areas that require human dexterity to clean. Neo can adapt to its environment in real-time and automatically update its route on the fly to avoid obstacles.

“As London’s largest employer, LHSC is dedicated to excellence in patient care, teaching, and research,” said Dispesh Patel, VP, facilities management, LHSC. “A big part of our mandate is providing our employees and patients with a safe, clean environment to work and heal. As long-standing partners with Sodexo, we are excited to grow the role of automation in keeping our hospital safe.”

Neo also comes with the proprietary Avidbots Command Center. The dashboard lets you monitor, manage and track the floor cleaning robot, or a fleet of robots, remotely and in real time. Users can access detailed reports of every cleaning operation, including precise productivity metrics and sector-level coverage maps.

“Now, more than ever, organizations are turning to innovation to support their front-line cleaning staff in their critical work,” said Faizan Shekh, CEO and co-founder of Avidbots. “Sodexo and the London Health Sciences Centre are leading the charge in the facilities and healthcare spaces to lean on solutions like Neo to maintain increased levels of cleanliness and sanitation as we navigate this new normal. We look forward to this partnership and working together to keep staff and patients safe.”

Facing an over-burdened workforce and strict quality standards, one of Canada’s largest hospital networks also recently turned to floor cleaning robots for help. Multiple robots are working together to ensure all floor areas are clean. The hospital network, for the first time, has access to real-time reports in the form of a heat map.